There has been a major effort in recent years to find compounds that modulate the immune system. Examples of such compounds, which have demonstrated cytokine inducing and immunomodulating activity that render them useful in the treatment of a variety of disorders, include certain 1H-imidazo[4,5-c]quinolin-4-amine, 1H-imidazo[4,5-c]pyridin-4-amine, tetrahydroquinolin-4-amine, naphthyridin-4-amine, and tetrahydronaphthyridine-4-amine compounds as well as certain analogous thiazolo and oxazolo compounds.
But despite important progress in the effort to find immunomodulating compounds, there is still a critical scientific and medical need for additional compounds that have an ability to modulate aspects of the immune response, by induction or inhibition of cytokine biosynthesis or other mechanisms.